The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) released a new follow-up study today that assesses hazardous levels of the unlabeled carcinogen contaminant 1,4-dioxane in leading conventional as well as "natural" and "organic" brands of personal care and household cleaning products. The results indicate significant improvement for 23 products from sixteen major brands that OCA had previously exposed last year as containing potentially dangerous levels of 1,4-dioxane. In other words, thanks to ongoing pressure from the OCA and its allies, some of the best selling personal care products on the market have been reformulated to be safer for human health and the environment.

Of course, our work is never done: the study also found a number of conventional products that had alarmingly high levels of the carcinogen. The study was commissioned by the OCA and was overseen by environmental health consumer advocate David Steinman (author of The Safe Shopper's Bible). The independent third-party laboratory, Bodycote Testing Group, known for rigorous testing and chain-of-custody protocols, performed all testing.

Alert Update of the Week:
OCA & Grassroots Pressure on Obama and Vilsack Show Results

Thanks to your hard work and ongoing pressure, the Obama Administration and Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack are apparently responding to OCA and our allies' calls for major reform in the food and farm sector, including:

President Obama's budget plan includes a $1 billion a year increase in funding for U.S. child nutrition programs including school lunches. Learn more

Secretary Vilsack has called for government support for farmers using alternative energy, such as wind and solar, as well as those converting to organic farming practices. Vilsack also has called for cuts in taxpayer subsidy payments to large farms. Learn more

Vilsack has pledged the USDA's support in ending racial discrimination in the farm sector, specifically condemning past discrimination in limiting credit opportunities for African-American farmers. Learn more

The USDA's National Organic Program has cracked down on companies spiking organic fertilizer with prohibited synthetic additives. Learn more

President Obama has guaranteed at least $500 million for the Green Jobs Act in the stimulus package. Learn more

What's next? Keep the pressure on! Congress, President Obama and Secretary Vilsack need to hear from you on key issues.

More Good News:
Campaigning of OCA & Allies Shifts USDA and Helps Hilda Solis Get Confirmed

On February 23, 2009, the Obama administration heard the voice of organic consumers and named Kathleen Merrigan deputy agriculture secretary. As one of OCA's favored nominees for the position, Merrigan has a solid background in sustainable and organic agriculture. She was the administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service at the USDA when the division crafted the organic guidelines. Since then, she's been a board member of the Organic Center and a professor at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She's been an avid organic booster, spreading the word about the superiority of organic foods.

Thank you to the nearly 100,000 organic consumers, including 50,000 new OCA participants who joined OCA's Vilsack campaign, which is putting pressure on the Secretary of Agriculture to make positive changes at the USDA with actions like the appointment of Merrigan.

We'd also like to thank the thousands of you who took part in another OCA alert and supported Hilda Solis for Labor Secretary. We're pleased to announce she was confirmed on February 24, 2009. Secretary Solis, the department's first Latino chief, is a longtime ally of farm workers, a champion of workers' rights and green jobs, and an experienced leader who has fought to restore balance to our economy. OCA expects Solis to bolster protections for farm workers and other laborers in the food sector.

The Organic Consumers Association is one of the few nonprofit organizations that provides you with success stories, nearly every week, showing you how your financial donations are directly bringing about positive change. These success stories are due to the involvement and donations of our supporters. In order to continue bringing positive change in the realms of health, social justice, and sustainability, we need your contributions. If you are unable to donate, please help spread the word about OCA to friends, family and colleagues. Please donate today!

Child-friendly, healthy and truly delicious food can be served in school lunchrooms: that's what OCA's DC Intern, Chantal Clement, learned at "Take a Bite out of Childhood Obesity", a briefing on the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act sponsored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Thanks to junk food diets, the estimated lifetime risk for kids born in or after 2000 to contract Type 2 Diabetes (a disease doctors generally treated patients aged 30 or more for) is 32.8% for men and 38.5% for women. Due to widespread dietary unhealthiness, boys will lose 11.6 years from our current life expectancy rates and girls will lose 14.3 years.The Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act is an opportunity to get these healthy, cost-effective foods to every school child through the school meals.

The Organic Consumers Association is co-sponsoring a health care reform petition, put together by our friends at Natural News, with a goal of generating 100,000 signatures for submission to elected officials in Washington DC. The broad scope of this petition reminds the President and Congress that the nation's health is dependent on prevention as well as curing disease:

Sustainability News of the Week:
OCA at Power Shift '09, Artists for the Climate and the Capitol Climate Action

Worldwide, industrial food production is responsible for 30% or more of the fossil fuel use and the greenhouse gas pollution that's driving climate change. The Organic Consumers Association has joined the climate movement to bring the CO2 levels down below the dangerous tipping point of 350 ppm (we're at 387 ppm right now). We support the movement's goals to stop new coal plants, to shut down or phase out the pre-existing 600 U.S. coal plants, to create 5-10 million new green jobs in wind and solar sector, and to begin a deep retrofitting of the nation's 130 million buildings to drastically cut (by 80--90%) energy consumption. In addition, we're educating climate activists about the potential organic agriculture has to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by drastically cutting fossil fuel use and sequestering greenhouse gases in the soil. As the Rodale Institute has shown, transitioning the world's agricultural lands to organic would allow the soil to absorb 40% of current greenhouse gas emissions.

On February 28, OCA's DC intern Chantal Clement spoke at Power Shift '09, a gathering of 12,000 young climate activists, on a panel about the film Food Inc. On March 1, OCA's political director Alexis Baden-Mayer caught up with Wendell Berry at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network's Artists for the Climate, and on March 2, she joined Berry and a few thousand others at the Capitol Climate Action to shut down the coal plant that powers the U.S. Capitol.

Web Forum Posting of the Week:
We only have the next 10 days to stop MANDATORY NAIS.

The following was posted in the OCA web forum by Cyn: "Whether you're a small farmer, rancher, a person that owns just one animal, or just an average consumer, we are all gong to suffer for this. If you think food prices are high now, just wait when the NAIS becomes mandatory. You can forget about buying healthy, free range, or organic meat, milk and eggs because it will become price prohibitive. Most likely you wont be able to get it at all, because the cost of NAIS for small farms and ranches will put them out of business...The U.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry will hold a hearing on NAIS on March 11. Bills to put NAIS into law, HR875 and companion Senate S814, are being pushed through Congress, as well as an Appropriations Bill with funding for NAIS. This hearing is critical to blocking mandatory NAIS..."

A new study analyzing fields planted with Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) cotton indicates the crops are causing the soil to slowly die. The study found that over a three year period soil micro-organisms, which are necessary for building healthy and nutrient rich soil, decreased dramatically in the Monsanto cotton fields. According to the Institute for Science in Society, "At this rate, in a decade of planting with GM cotton, or any GM crop with Bt genes in it, could lead to total destruction of soil organisms, leaving dead soil unable to produce food." Learn more

You can make a difference. Join the Organic Consumers Association and contact your Congresspersons today and urge them to:

1) Require mandatory labeling of all GE plants and animals
2) Place a moratorium on new genetically engineered plants or animals, and
3) Protect non-GE and organic farmers by assigning liability for injury caused by genetically engineered organisms.

3) Support Ron Paul's Bill to End the Ban on Raw Milk:
The consumption of raw milk is legal in every U.S. state, but its sale is currently illegal in about half of them. U.S. Congressman Ron Paul has introduced HR 778, a bill "to authorize the interstate traffic of unpasteurized milk and milk products that are packaged for direct human consumption."

4) Nation's Food System Nearly Broke:
"Any time a country neglects its family farm base and allows it to become financially bankrupt, the entire economy of that country will soon collapse. It may take generations to rebuild the farm economy and that of the country..."

Let OCA sift through the media smog and bring you the top new and analysis of the day. The OCA website has 10 or more news articles posted each day, and a library of over 40,000 articles covering issues including health, justice, food and farming, politics, and the environment. Bookmark OrganicConsumers.org

Organic Geek News of the Week:
Do You Twitter?

The OCA is now on Twitter! We will be posting from our news feed, as well as new campaigns, alerts, and anything else we think you'll like! Get OCA news anywhere and everywhere you go.

Message From OCA Sponsor:Consumer Tip of the Week:
How to Afford Organic During a Recession

Eden Foods Offers OCA Customers 15% Discount

Eden Foods is one of the few national organic food producers who goes beyond the USDA Organic Standards. Although Eden Foods is USDA certified, their products do not bear the USDA seal, because they say the USDA standard really represents a "minimum standard" that Eden Foods goes far beyond.

As a subscriber to Organic Bytes, you can enjoy a 15% discount rate on any Eden Foods products by going here.

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